Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 5

Stefanie Schneider
Oilfields, diptych - 21 Century, Polaroid, Contemporary, Portrait, Landscape

2004

About the Item

'Untitled' (Oilfields) 2004, 20x20cm each, installed with gaps 20x43cm, Edition 9/10, digital C-Print, based on a Polaroid, signature label and certificate, artist Inventory No. 1214.267, not mounted The last image shows the larger, analog edition at the Susanne Vielmetter - LA Project exhibit, 2004. OILFIELDS, 2004 Oilfields connotes both the notion of the frontier and the adventurous mentality of the West, and a kind of horizontal understanding of landscape that is so quintessential about the West. While it circumscribes the West's idiosyncratic historical and physical manifestations, it also stands for a concept that is slowly fading into the past as a new era emerges. Stefanie Schneider: THE GREATER THE EMPTINESS THE GRANDER THE ART – Stefan Gronert Not “Twenty-six Gasoline Stations” but “29 Palms, CA”! Forty-two years after Ed Ruscha’s legendary book, there is no gasoline station at the beginning of the book that is here at hand. Instead it is the open hearted Radha – with orange hair, pink-colored overalls and a bashful, or rather cunning, gaze that is directed downward – with which this book begins! And with her and with Max – attention: a woman –, one whose appearance is in accordance with the same styling, it comes to an end as well – after Radha has in the meantime colored her fingernails pink, again endowed with the same open heartedness and the same look which now, however, reveals in combination with her altered facial expression an “old-maidish” turning away from the viewer. This may serve as an example for a vivid and understandable transformation which flows into a large-scale representation of a cheerless settlement beneath a shining, blue sky – there a figure, lost straightaway, becomes overwhelmed. Pictures which in 1998/99 play in the harsh California sunlight or in spaces that are not exactly cozy and comfortable. “Play” is the correct word in this regard, for precisely in view of the pictures of persons, there remains more than just doubt as to whether we are looking at staged scenes or have simply happened upon the high-strung “reality” of a (wannabe) film world. Yet not all the pictures have the same character of a glaring, plastic world. Upon flipping through the pages, we also encounter unpretentious, literally “colorless” scenes in undefined interiors, or unspectacular views resembling a still life and opening out onto a nowhere land. That which connects all participants in these picture-worlds is the observation that they appear to be exhausted, lost, empty or uncertain about their existence. One is almost reminded of the empty gazes and loneliness of the protagonists in the pictures of large cities painted by Manet or Degas in the era of Early Modernism. With one exception, all the photographs which are reproduced here, which originally measure 60 by 70 cm but which here, in their present size and configuration, make productive use of the possibilities presented by the medium of the book, manifest several elements of B-movies: smoking, naked, made-up and muscular persons who are not inclined to conform entirely to the vision of Hollywood dreams. Beauty and vexation, eroticism and loneliness enter into a mixture which reveals the rift between desire and truth. From a distance, one is reminded of the “Untitled Film Stills” of Cindy Sherman, which in this regard are not nearly as drastic. Yet where as her photos from the seventies are characterized by a cool, objective mode of representation in historicizing black-and-white, the photographs of Stefanie Schneider evince a soft, sometimes seemingly pictorial visual language with a coloration ranging from the pale to the artificial-glaring. As in many other pictures of Stefanie Schneider which often present themselves to us as sequences, these photos refer back as well to the perceptual stereotypes of film. Making use of instant photography, proceeding from which significantly enlarged C-prints come into being, her pictures summon up the impression of a narration without ultimately becoming part of a plot that is readable in a linear fashion. The illusion of the narrative element, however, simply enhances the experience of a renunciation of just this aspect. For the picture titles as well – and also the title of this publication – provide no real help with the imaginary construction of a story. Nevertheless, names return which include the first name of the artist herself: hence is everything not in fact a game but rather a series of authentic and instantaneous images, or is it after all nothing other than a staging, a game – how real is life? The paucity of plot elements, which contradicts all expectation of a cinematic style, as well as the emptiness and loneliness of the persons, enters into a peculiar, sometimes seemingly surreal association with the magic of the sun-drenched expanses of the dreamlike landscape. Just as the fantasy and imagination of the viewer are stimulated, so to the same great extent does the redemption of these visual figures of love founder on a void whose glaze is created, not least of all, by the peculiar blurriness of the photographic representation. The seemingly amateur character of these pictures, which have in no way been treated with any excessive scrupulousness, leaves us with a stimulating incertitude as to their interpretation, one in which the spheres of reality, fiction or dream are scarcely capable any longer of being differentiated. Thus the gaps and the scenic openness of what is presented ultimately set in motion a self-appraisal. So what remains after “29 Palms, CA”? Perhaps that hope which deviates from the saying of Ruscha that is quoted in the title: The stronger the photography the better the reality will be! Translated by George Frederick Takis Stefanie Schneider lives and works in the California High Desert where her scintillating situations take place in the American West. 29 Palm,CA features often in her work. The post production (enlargement) takes place by hand in her Polaroid factory in east Berlin, Germany. Situated on the verge of an elusive super-reality, her photographic sequences provide the ambience for loosely woven story lines and a cast of phantasmic characters. Schneider works with the chemical mutations of expired polaroid film stock. Chemical explosions of color spreading across the surfaces undermine the photograph's commitment to reality and induce her characters into trance-like dreamscapes. Like flickering sequences of old road movies Schneider's images seem to evaporate before conclusions can be made - their ephemeral reality manifesting in subtle gestures and mysterious motives. Schneider's images refuse to succumb to reality, they keep alive the confusions of dream, desire, fact, and fiction. Stefanie Schneider received her MFA in Communication Design at the Folkwang Schule Essen, Germany. Her work has been shown at the Museum for Photography, Braunschweig, Museum für Kommunikation, Berlin, the Institut für Neue Medien, Frankfurt, the Nassauischer Kunstverein, Wiesbaden, Kunstverein Bielefeld, Museum für Moderne Kunst Passau, Les Rencontres d'Arles, Foto -Triennale Esslingen.
More From This SellerView All
  • Salvation Mountain I - Slab City (California Badlands) - Polaroid, 21st Century
    By Stefanie Schneider
    Located in Morongo Valley, CA
    Salvation Mountain I - Slab City (California Badlands) - 2016 20x20cm, Edition of 10. Archival Print, based on a Polaroid. Certificate and Sign...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Color Photography

    Materials

    Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Polaroid

  • Running with Guns (Long Way Home) analog, last Edition
    By Stefanie Schneider
    Located in Morongo Valley, CA
    Radha Shooting I (Stranger than Paradise), 1999, 58x56cm, published in 'Stranger than Paradise', Edition 2/10 (last available Edition), analog C-Print based on a Polaroid, hand-p...
    Category

    1990s Contemporary Landscape Photography

    Materials

    Photographic Paper, C Print, Polaroid

  • Indian Summer III (The Last Picture Show)
    By Stefanie Schneider
    Located in Morongo Valley, CA
    Indian Summer III (The Last Picture Show) 20x20cm, 2005, Edition 4/10, digital C-Print, matte surface, based on a Polaroid, signature label and certificate, Artist Inventory 892.11. Not mounted Stefanie Schneider's scintillating situations take place in the American West. Situated on the verge of an elusive super-reality, her photographic sequences provide the ambience for loosely woven story lines and a cast of phantasmic characters. Schneider works with the chemical mutations of expired Polaroid film stock. Chemical explosions of color spreading across the surfaces undermine the photograph's commitment to reality and induce her characters into trance-like dream scapes. Like flickering sequences of old road movies Schneider's images seem to evaporate before conclusions can be made - their ephemeral reality manifesting in subtle gestures and mysterious motives. Schneider's images refuse to succumb to reality, they keep alive the confusions of dream, desire, fact, and fiction. Stefanie Schneider received her MFA in Communication Design at the Folkwang Schule Essen, Germany. Her work has been shown at the Museum for Photography, Braunschweig, Museum für Kommunikation, Berlin, the Institut für Neue Medien, Frankfurt, the Nassauischer Kunstverein, Wiesbaden, Kunstverein Bielefeld, Museum für Moderne Kunst Passau, Les Rencontres d'Arles, Foto -Triennale Esslingen., Bombay Beach Biennale 2018 / 2019. “It was Stefanie Schneider, who inspired me to start the company THE IMPOSSIBLE PROJECT after seeing her work, which seems to achieve the possible from the impossible, creating the finest of art out of the most basic of mediums and materials. Indeed, after that one day, I was so impressed with her photography that I realized Polaroid film could not be allowed to disappear. Being at the precise moment in time where the world was about to lose Polaroid, I seized the moment and have put all my efforts and passion into saving Polaroid film. For that, I thank Stefanie Schneider almost exclusively, who played a bigger role than anyone in saving this American symbol of photography.” –Florian Kaps, March 8th 2010 (“Doc” Dr. Florian Kaps, founder of “The Impossible Project”) What makes Stefanie Schneider’s work so unique is that it’s immediately recognizable. Perfect ‘wabi-sabi’ in appearance and content. Dream like, colorful with depth and vision. From start to finish, a truly self made artist with a distinctively female perspective. Exhibitions Selected (selected) 2018 Participation Bombay Beach Biennale, Bombay Beach, USA (G) March Available to All, Rough Play Projects - Site Specific, Joshou Tree, USA (G) curated by Deborah Martin with Adam Berg, Doron Gazit, Kellan Barnebey, Chris Sanchez, Aili Schmelzt 2017 BLICKFELD Analoge Fotografie, Kommunale Galerie Steglitz-Zehlendorf (G) (catalog), (upcoming)
 Rosegallery, Bergamot Station, Santa Monica (G) Magie des Moments, Kunstverein Bad Homburg Artlantis, Bad Homburg (G) 2016 
Instantdreams, Instantdreams Gallery, Berlin 

(S) 2015
 Desert Voices, De Re Gallery, Los Angeles (G) with Pamela Littky The Ballery in Heat, The Ballery, Berlin (G) 
Blue Nudes, De Re Gallery, Los Angeles (G) 

 2014

 Summer Show, Galerie Catherine et André Hug, Paris, France (G) 6 Finalists, Saatchi Gallery London (G) 
Instantdreams, De Re Gallery, Los Angeles (S)
Grand Opening, De Re Gallery, Los Angeles (G) with Banksy, Andy Warhol, Alison Bignon, Sophie Dickens, Victor Gingembre and others
 2013 
Heather's Dream, Short, nominated for the German Short Film Award 2013 (Deutscher Kurzfilmpreis)
Images For Images (Artists fir Tichy), GASK - Gallery of the Central Bohemian Region,  Kutná Hora, Czech Republic, (G) with Richard Prince, Nan Golding, Shirana Shahbazi, Sophie Calle, Martin Kippenberger, Arnulf Rainer, Thomas Ruff, Katharina Grosse, Jonathan Meese & others (catalog) 
The Girl behind the White Picket Fence, Galerie Catherine et André Hug, Paris, France (S)
 Heather's Dream, Short, German Competition Short Film Festival Oberhausen 
Multimedia Presentation with Artist Stefanie Schneider, Palms Springs Art Museum, Annenberg Theater
 The Polaroid Years: Instant Photography and Experimentation, The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Poughkeepsie, NY, (G) with Ansel Adams, Bruce Charlesworth, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Charles and Ray Eames, Robert Mapplethorpe, Lisa Oppenheim, Andy Warhol and others, (catalog)
 Road Atlas - Straßenfotografie, DZ Bank Collection: Kunsthalle Erfurt (Spring), Art Foyer DZ Bank, Frankfurt/Main, (G) with Helen Levitt, Pieter Hugo, Nobuyoshi Araki, Pietro Donzelli, and others (catalog)  2012
 Stranger Than Paradise, Christian Hohmenn Fine Art, Palms Desert, (S) Stefanie Schneider, Gallery at Cliff Lede Vineyards, Napa Valley, CA, (S) Bienale Art Auction 2012, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, (G), with Ai Weiwei, John Baldessari, Christo, Ed Ruscha, Christopher Russell, and others. MUSES, Galerie Catherine et André Hug, Paris, France (G) with Kourtney Roy and Eric Weeks Polaroid (IM)POSSIBLE - THE WESTLICHT COLLECTION, NRW Forum Kultur und Wirtschaft, Düsseldorf (G), (catalog) Road Atlas - Straßenfotografie, DZ Bank Collection: Kunstmuseum Dieselkraftwerk, Cottbus, (G), (catalog) Studio Scholorship, Centro Cultural Andratx, Mallorca, May 2012 Selling Sex, ShowStudio Gallery, London (G) with Cortney Andrews, Una Burke, Liz Cohen, Inge Jacobsen Stranger Than Paradise, Scott White Contemporary, San Diego, (S) 

2011 
Kunst zu verlosen !  // Art to raffle off !, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, (G) with Monica Bonvicini, Tim Eitel...
    Category

    Early 2000s Contemporary Color Photography

    Materials

    Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Polaroid

  • Oasis (Sidewinder) - analog, mounted
    By Stefanie Schneider
    Located in Morongo Valley, CA
    Oasis (Sidewinder), 2005 Edition 1/5, 16 pieces each 48x47cm, installed with gaps 220x220cm analog C-Prints, hand-printed by the artist, printed on Fuji Crystal Archive Paper. Mou...
    Category

    Early 2000s Contemporary Landscape Photography

    Materials

    Metal

  • The Walk (Stay) - Polaroid, 21st Century
    By Stefanie Schneider
    Located in Morongo Valley, CA
    Stefanie Schneider's work was used for Marc Forster's movie 'Stay', featuring Ewan McGregor, Naomi Watts and Ryan Gosling. Naomi and Ryan were both portraying artists and Stefanie Sc...
    Category

    Early 2000s Contemporary Landscape Photography

    Materials

    Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Polaroid

  • Oilfields, diptych - 21 Century, Polaroid, Contemporary, Portrait, Landscape
    By Stefanie Schneider
    Located in Morongo Valley, CA
    'Untitled' (Oilfields) 2004, - diptych. Edition of 10, plus 2 artist Proofs. 20x20cm each, installed with gaps 20x43cm, 2 Archival C-Prints, based on 2 expired Polaroids. Signat...
    Category

    Early 2000s Contemporary Landscape Photography

    Materials

    Metal

You May Also Like
  • New York VI - 21st Century Contemporary Original Polaroid Photograph Framed
    By Pia Clodi
    Located in Salzburg, AT
    New York VI - Framed Contemporary Original Polaroid Photograph Like much of Pia Clodi's work, 'New York VI' leaves a trace of the fast, nomadic life she leads. In this instance, C...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Landscape Photography

    Materials

    Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, Polaroid

  • New York II - Contemporary Landscape Polaroid Original Photograph
    By Pia Clodi
    Located in Salzburg, AT
    New York II - Framed Contemporary Original Polaroid Photograph Like much of Pia Clodi's work, 'New York II' leaves a trace of the fast, nomadic life she leads, this time depicting...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Landscape Photography

    Materials

    Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, Polaroid

  • New York III - Contemporary Landscape Polaroid Original Photograph Framed
    By Pia Clodi
    Located in Salzburg, AT
    New York III - Framed Contemporary Original Polaroid Photograph Like much of Pia Clodi's work, 'New York II' leaves a trace of the fast, nomadic life she leads, this time doucment...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Landscape Photography

    Materials

    Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, Polaroid

  • New York IV - Contemporary Landscape Polaroid Original Photograph
    By Pia Clodi
    Located in Salzburg, AT
    New York IV - Framed Contemporary Polaroid Photograph Like much of Pia Clodi's work, 'New York IV' leaves a trace of the fast, nomadic life she leads,. Here, a photograph of a hig...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Landscape Photography

    Materials

    Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, Polaroid

  • New York V - Contemporary Landscape Polaroid Original Photograph Framed
    By Pia Clodi
    Located in Salzburg, AT
    New York V - Framed Contemporary Original Polaroid Photograph Like much of Pia Clodi's work, 'New York V' leaves a trace of the fast, nomadic life she leads. This work is represen...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Landscape Photography

    Materials

    Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, Polaroid

  • Paris Walks I - Framed Contemporary Landscape Polaroid Original Photograph
    By Pia Clodi
    Located in Salzburg, AT
    Paris Walks - Contemporary Black & White Polaroid Original Photograph Framed Pia Clodi’s works encompass moments and mementos from her countless walks through cities as well as nat...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Landscape Photography

    Materials

    Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, Polaroid

Recently Viewed

View All